It’s not ‘just’ a box- March 2018

One day, we were all playing, when all of a sudden, there was a box in the room!

It was an enormous box! Keely was pushing it onto the carpet and said it was so heavy so some of the children helped her to push it. “What’s in it?”, asked the children. We discussed what it could be, could it be a car? Could it be a giraffe? Could it be a feather? It was a mystery. We discussed the shape and size of the box, we listened to it, and we couldn’t hear anything. Charlie noticed it was wrapped up, so began to unwrap it. It was so exciting!

Inside the box, there was someone sleeping! Keely said his name was Peter, and that if we sang some songs, he might wake up. We sang ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’, and ‘Hello, Hello’. He woke up! We spoke to Peter for a little bit and he gave us all a high five, before disappearing! Then the box was ’empty’. The grown ups said that means there’s nothing left in there. Liliana brought a pen and began to write on the box, and all the children joined in. We concentrated for such a long time, doing circles and lines, using our big, and our little muscles. We are marvellous mark-makers.

When the box tipped over, some of the children decided to climb into it, turning the box into a den. The children used lots of problem-solving and mathematical thinking to work out how we could fit in as many friends as possible. There was lots of giggles and whispers as the children hid. Not long after, when children were knocking on to their hiding friends, the box turned into a drum! The children played ‘stop, ready, go’ with the drum beaters.

Later, when the children climbed onto the box and it bent, it quickly turned into a slide! The children waited their turn to have a go on the slide, using their growing social skills to recognise the needs of their friends.